My Trails into the Past

I am participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge (April 2016), where we write 26 blog posts featuring each letter of the alphabet. O is for Olivia Jones Johnston When I discovered that my second great grandfather, Reuben Mack Johnston had married Olivia Jane Jones, I had about cried.  Johnston was hard enough to research but now I had a Jones. Would I ever find her parents? Question: Who were the parents of Olivia Jones Johnston? R.M. Johnston married Miss Olivia Jones on 23 Dec 1879 in Erath County, Texas. [1] 1879 Marriage R.M. Johnston to Olivia J. Jones What I learned about Olivia and her family came from an article in the Comanche Chief about her son, O.D. Johnston, nicknamed “Pig.” [2] He was interviewed by the newspaper when he was 81 years old and the paper printed photographs of the family. Reuben & Olivia Olivia Jane Jones was Reuben’s second wife, his first wife dying between 1877 and 1879.  She helped raise the three da...

Yesterday I was searching through the probate records on FamilySearch.org . I knew that Thomas Haley probably died between 1850 and 1860. He was last seen in Rankin Co, Mississippi in the 1850 US Federal census. [1] There he was enumerated as a 61 year-old farmer with his wife, Elizabeth who was 58 years old and two sons, Thomas, 27 and John, 17. Being 61 would make his birth year somewhere around 1789. The census showed he was born in North Carolina and Elizabeth, his wife was born in South Carolina, while the two sons were born in Mississippi. Why am I interested in this couple? They are my 4th great grandparents on my maternal grandfather’s side. Thomas Haley’s daughter, Amanda married Benjamin W Jones. Their daughter, Olivia Jane married Rubin M. Johnston. Their son, Thomas N. Johnston married Nell L. Hutson. These were my grandfather’s parents. The first probate file I found on Thomas Haley was the petition for administration, filed by son, Thomas J. Haley. [2] Thomas gave...